from International HERALD TRIBUNE By Somini Sengupta Published: WEDNESDAY, MAY 25, 2005

A furor in India over fate of tigers
Prime minister joins battle with poachers

NEW DELHI: One year and a day after becoming prime minister of India, Manmohan Singh traveled to Ranthambore National Park, the celebrated sanctuary of India's national animal: the tiger.

The visit on Monday to Ranthambore was less a warm and fuzzy photo opportunity than an attempt to take on a budding political crisis. The tiger, as endangered worldwide as it is iconic in this country, is vanishing from India's tiger parks.

With a growing and lucrative market for everything tiger from skin to the tiger's penis, which is used in Chinese traditional medicine, tiger poachers have evidently had a run on several government-protected parks. A handful of poaching networks have been broken up here in the capital, in recent months, and their bundles of carefully tanned tiger skins displayed to news media hungry for as much tiger-poaching copy as possible.

Most startling of all, a federal law-enforcement inquiry found earlier this month that there was not a single tiger left at another famous Indian tiger reserve, called Sariska. At least two or three poaching networks were operating in the park, the investigation found, and it raised the possibility of collusion by forest guards. Even in Ranthambore, the jewel in India's tiger sanctuary crown, 18 tigers are missing, according to press reports.

In fact, the tiger is among several endangered species that are in peril across the country, largely because of pressures on land and water. But the tiger, because of its symbolic potency, is the one that has seized the imagination of the country and now caught the prime minister's attention.

"Reports of the decline in the tiger population have once again alerted us to this grim reality," Singh said in a speech in April, adding, "Our government will take all the required steps to protect the tiger and other endangered species."

Singh ordered the federal investigation into Sariska. He appointed a so-called Tiger Task Force to draft a conservation policy.

Earlier this year, a meeting of the National Board of Wildlife, which he heads, was convened for the first time in 17 months. His office has even dangled the possibility of creating a special law enforcement unit assigned to wildlife protection.

India is a signer of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species, and it stands to face punitive measures should it fail to do its part to curb the illegal trade in tigers.

The Tiger Task Force called last week for tougher measures to control poaching. Also last week, figures from the Environment Ministry showed that at least 122 tigers had been killed in the country's sanctuaries from 1999 to 2003; another 62 had died what the government called "unnatural deaths."

"From a law enforcement perspective, it can't get any more serious," said John Sellar, a senior enforcement officer from the convention on trade of endangered species, visiting New Delhi last week to meet with wildlife enforcement specialists from China, Nepal, and India, Asia's poaching corridor. "You're talking about a highly endangered species."

No one really knows how many tigers are left in India. The Environment Ministry estimates that there are more than 3,600 tigers in its 28 tiger reserves, though tiger advocates dispute the reserves' claims. A tiger census is under way in several national parks.

Today, of India's 28 reserves, at least five are in trouble, according to one of the country's most vocal tiger champions, Belinda Wright, of the Wildlife Protection Society of India.

"It's an international scandal," Wright said. "I think that's why the prime minister is sitting up a little bit."

Circling around the story of the vanishing tigers in India is the question of what happens to the people who live around the tigers - the villagers who stand to gain enormous sums of money by aiding poachers.

In a statement last week, the Tiger Task Force said that among the failures of tiger conservation was the "increasing hostility of local communities who share the tiger's habitat."

Hi Tom
nice composition
good light on the head of the animal and good catchlight in the eye too.
the note is rally good as it describes the present situation of tigers in India.But efforts are being made by the NGOs and the forest officials to conserve this treasure. Ranthambhore has seen an increase in the no of tigers which is now 31 (earlier it had dropped to 13).
the procedure of conservation is very difficult in India because of following reasons..
-- lack of skilled manpower in the forest dept
-- large forests with dense foliage and remote villages in core areas
-- lack of tachnological elements to help monitoring
-- neutral attitude of politicians
-- lack of awareness in public
-- poachers are traditional hnting communities and do not have any other skill to earn their bread and butter.. they remail unemployed and then inevitably turn to poaching..

tiger conservation has got so many political social and ecological aspects and it has become a crucial issue these days for indian wildlife ministry..
lets hope we dont lose our treasured animal.. the king of the forest!!

hello Tom,
As I wrote for your last posts, I fallow pleasurely great shots of your SE Asia trips.
Tigers portraite was captured with a great POV, composition and focus. Interesting, but very nicely preparing notes.
As I see, lighting a bit more (since maybe my computer arrangements). So, I add a WS. I hope you will like it.
Thanks for sharing and with my best wishes
Ahmet

Hi Tom,
i read you note with familiar sense of depair. I've been following the plight of the Tiger for as long as i can remember, yet it never seems to improve, only worsen. I can't help but feel that the wider global community (ie governments) should now offer some help in fighting this impedning tragedy in some way, especially when it comes to addressing some of the issues Vihang noted. I hope something is done soon, as it is fast becoming too late to make a difference.
Anyway, on a lighter note, this is a very nice portrait. Composition is good with some space to the right for him to stare into. Good detail and sharp focus too, well done!
Paul

Great photo and an excellent text, but still our tigers continue to dissappear and the tiger task force talks the talk but will never walk the talk. Indian politicians will never allow real conservation people to work with our tigers. They would nhave to admit to 60 years of lying and misleading the World about the true number of tigers that are still wild in India. They are still talking about 2500 tigers, yet everyone on the ground knows there are less than 900 left alive today. Sariska will be repeated over and over again before anyone has the guts to come clean and allow real work to be done for our beautiful tigers.
Thanks for sharing this with us.